Boca doctor invents DIY pap smear test

Each year, women are encouraged to visit the doctor for a pap smear, but many go years without seeing a doctor or getting tested.

Now a Boca Raton doctor hopes to change that.

From inside his South Florida office, Dr. Richard Conlen showed CBS12 the home pap test kit he helped invent.

“We need to have an approach to go after those people who don't go into the system,” Dr. Conlen said.

Self Pap tests for HPV, STD’s and cervical cancer. which kills almost 4,000 women each year.

“This is another tool that we can use in the war against cervical cancer,” Dr. Conlen said.

Dr. Conlen said the self-collection kit does not replace a gynecologist. But is instead an alternative for women don’t routinely see a physician due to lack of insurance, distance or religious reasons.

“These people who don’t go are turning out to be the 4,000 deaths per year,” Dr. Conlen said.

Dr. Conlen demonstrated how Self Pap works.

“You would hold it like this and place this in the vagina when you are lying back,” Dr. Conlen said.

A demonstration video he gave CBS12 breaks it down step by step.

It seems like an easy process, but some health professionals express concern such as difficulty getting an appropriate cell sample.

Dr. Conlen said he’s confident with the results gathered throughout the four clinical studies conducted in the past 10 years.

“You have to listen to all of the negatives so you can appreciate them and address them. We've addressed 90 percent of it and are very confident this will do the job it’s supposed to do,” Dr. Conlen said.

If approved by the FDA, Dr. Conlen believes Self Pap would cost women under $100.